Dr. Walt Magnussen, director, and his team at ITEC have been involved in the development and testing of next-generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) systems for more than a decade, and they were a key partner in implementing the “early builder” of the nationwide public-safety broadband network in Harris County, Texas, one of five jurisdictions nationally chosen as early builders.

The installation completes ITEC’s emergency communications ecosystem, as described in Project 43, an Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International effort to help the public-safety community prepare for future broadband technologies. RapidDeploy fully addresses rigorous NG 9-1-1 workflows and is built to modern standards of data exchange.

“Now we can do a full interoperability test — all the way from emergency caller, to the NG 9-1-1 call-taker, to dispatch with CAD, to the first responder on FirstNet (First Responder Network Authority),” said Magnussen. “With little to no preparation, we were able to do a complete installation. Imaging our surprise when the CAD was fully deployed in just 90 minutes. While there is pushback to the cloud in public safety, with many smaller PSAPs (public-safety answering points) not having any access to CAD systems, it is clear to me that cloud is the only strategy that can be implemented that is scalable.”

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First responders are out on the front line ready to face emergencies at all times. They are a vital component of communities, working to identify threats, carry out evacuations, and treat the injured to save lives.